Sunday, June 1, 2008

A golf course deal?

From London, in The Times and The Telegraph, comes word that Cuba will announce a deal with British investors to develop golf course/real estate resorts that are intended to make Cuba more competitive in high-end tourism.

For months, there have been rumors that a deal of this type was in the offing, but a major sticking point has been Cuba’s resistance to allowing foreigners to own property in Cuba.(In the early 1990’s there was a condominium development in Havana, but its owners were bought out by the Cuban government.) Apparently this problem was resolved, according to the Times report, by a 75-year lease on the land for the first resort, which will allow the sale of homes for $300,000 to $2 million.

The first resort will be called the “Carbonera Country Club,” but neither newspaper report says where the 150-hectare project is to be located.